Charts, maps and infographics

Daily chart Olympics

Women against men

When recent female Olympic champions would have won gold in the men's event

MUCH has been made of the performance on July 28th of Ye Shiwen in the women's 400m individual medley. Her final 50m sprint was faster than the final 50m swum by Ryan Lochte, the winner of the men's event, and her overall winning time was faster than that in the men's race in the 1972 Olympics. Is this an indication that the gap between male and female performance in the pool is not as great as one might think? Today's charts show that in four Olympic swimming events with a long performance history, the most recent women's winning times (we have used 2012 results where applicable) would all have won gold medals as recently as the 1960s and '70s. But in athletics, the story is rather different. The 2008 gold-medal winners would have to travel substantially farther back in time to triumph in the men's competitions. Indeed, the winner of the long jump, Maurren Maggi, would have to go to Athens 1896—and even then she might have struggled. According to the gold-medal winner, Ellery Clark, the distances the men jumped were compromised by the refusal of Prince George of Greece to allow the measuring of run-ups because such behaviour savoured of professionalism.

Women chasing men

Swimming

100m freestyle

100m backstroke

200m breaststroke

400m freestyle

Running

100m

400m

1500m

Marathon

Jumping

Triple jump

Long jump

High jump

Pole vault

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

Sources: "The Complete Book of the Olympics"by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky; London2012.com

When michael phelps broke the world record 4 years ago in Beijing, people called him 'genius','incredible','born with swimming talent'...However, when Ye Shiwen broke the record 2 days ago.The Media called her cheater and drug doping. The western society especially the media is just full of double standards and hypocrisy. Laugh at the Chinese? Let's wait and see. He who laughs last laughs longest.

If I were an American, I would have been ashamed of the comments of John Leonard. His comments started a dirty western media campaign to psychologically destabilise a sixteen year old athlete who is competing in the Olympic games and is a champion.
Why is Leonard's suspicion not extendes to Phelps, Lockte, Soni, Nathan, etc? Their performance is as exceptional as that of Ye Shiwen.
But we all know that the Americans are shameless people.

American Coach John Leonard is just doing something natural for WHITE-SUPREMACHITS to do when they lose to non-Whites

JUST like Hitler refusing to believe that a Black Man, could have beaten an ARYAN in the 1000 metres sprint in the 1938 Berlin Olympics Games

SIMILARLY --- all White Supremachists can NEVER EVER accept that other people can beat the Whites in any sphere of human endeavour

BUT ALAS -- the White-Supremachists had come to terms with Blacks being superior in the Track and Field, Sprint events , in Basketball, American Football, Soccer,

AND NOW-- here comes the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans to challenge them in their LAST bastion of Sports --- ie Swimming, and the like

Just look at how the Olympics FENCING cheated the S Korean Girl of her chances of getting a Gold

How the Gymnastics gave the Japanese Guy lower points -- in order to let GB get the silver-medal

In the USA today--- it is not good times for White-Supremachists as they see the Blacks beating them in Sports and the Chinese out-performing them academically

Thus shattering THE MYTH of White-Superiority

People like John Lenard can never accept that a Chinese girl can beat a White Man in swimming --- even though some Western Experts argue that women's eart-beat is much faster than men and can move more blood per second than Men's

HEY---and Ye Shiwen have virtually no body hair whereas American men are as hairy as...., which will impede their speeds

(1) Women with Less body hair means more highly evolved (Proof Apes have more hair than humans who are higher in the evolutionary scale)

(2) Women have a higher body temperature than Men-- allowing YE more endurance after 300 metres

We tend to think of sex as black and white. But in truth it may be spectrum with male and female poles.

Homosexuals demonstrate that psychologically we exist on a continuous spectrum of attractions.
Some men are attracted to women but may admire the attractiveness of Brad Pitt.
Some women are attracted to men, but entertain lesbian fantasies on occasion.
Some are bisexual M-F. Homo on holiday. And hetero on weekends.
We are all shades of homo and hetero attractions--whether we act on them or not.

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Physiologically there also is a spectrum. Compare Marilyn Monroe to Sandy Duncan. Some women are more feminine and some are more masculine in body type.

Some women are hyperfeminized with breast so large they cannot see their feet, cannot throw a forward pass, or run without being slapped on their chins. They will not be throwing the javelin or running the 100m dash.

And some women have a masculinized body type: Tall, lean, broad shouldered, well muscled. But they are obviously women.

The women olympic athletes are similar to young boys in habitus: small breasts, thin, lacking curves, boyish hips. And most women even if they are athletic in build, fall off athletics after reaching birthing age.

It is the women who exists on the spectrum towards male-like characteristics that are potential olympians. You do not see the Double D women with big bottoms on the podium.

It is similar to height: tall olympians do better in many sports.

The pool for world competitive athletes for women is smaller than for men. And the period of adolescence before sex related body dimorphism is briefer for women. The big splash in Olympic gold has been a trio of American, Lithuanian and Chinese teen girls aged 17, 15 and 16 years old respectively.

The Asian women may ultimately have an athletic advantage: small breasts, boyish frame, less weight, less fat, and late maturation. But curves have their advantages for the rest of life.
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Olympians are an extreme sampling of a population. They possess rare gifts and attributes. And they have the right body type. And biology can conspire against our best plans.

There is a genetic internal clock which is particularly speedier for women. Teen women and preadolescents for some sports(ie. swimming and gymnastics) are the best athletes.

There's an interesting correlation, I believe, between the importance technology plays in the sport and the rate at which the women's game has come closer to the men's. It seems pole vault and swimming are those sports where recent female performance is on par with male athletes from more recent times and in both cases there's an important "tool" in use in the sport. For pole vaulting, it's the pole. For swimming, it's the suit. Those crazy suits from 2008 were, I imagine, a huge advantage over male suits from the 40s.

This is why I love the economist. Other news sources (CNN, Yahoo, etc.) pretty much just told the story how it stood, the economist takes time to research and make a story interesting with facts and supporting evidence.

I mean, there's still archery (so ancient) and rifle-events (so modern!), should we discontinue these because they are warlike? Perhaps the marathon, originally used to convey a message of BATTLE from Marathon to Athens regarding the defeat of the Persians, should likewise be discontinued.

There are bizarre events. But axing all the sports that aren't 'modern' or peaceful just seems a little over-the-top.

The reason men and women don't compete in MOST sports is the differences in biology favor the men. If you want cross-gender competitions, then go play badminton.

According to an interview with swimmer Ryan Lochte from ESPN the Magazine, up to "70 to 75 percent of Olympians are engaging in sexual activities with athletes on other teams and from other countries."

It is not Women against Men...rather it is one big happy world village shag.

If you compare the 2008 winning times of women and men in the swimming and running contests, you'll find men being roughly 10% faster in all contests, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. If you look at the 400m freestyle swimming, you'll then see a difference of about 25 seconds, the womens time being little over 240 seconds in total. Doesnt seem extraordinary to me at all.

Comparing the last 50m of a 400m race is like looking at the last 10 minutes of a soccer game. If a team that loses 3:1 scores its goal in the last 10 minutes and the other team doesnt score during that time, does that mean the losing team is better?

It's not that she won or that she broke a record. She broke it by so much that it's suspicious. Not a 'fact' and not 'proven' but certainly suspicious. If suddenly a person started throwing 130mph fastballs in baseball you can bet no matter that person's citizenry people would be asking questions.

I'm sorry but this whole doping thing is pretty hilarious if you step back and look at it.

It seems that some people on these boards fail to realize that the "western media" can say whatever the hell they want. They are not controlled by the state. Their goal is to sell you a story. Some do it by informing you (e.g. this publication), some do it by blowing things out of proportion(tabloids). In this case, they've successfully riled the Chinese nationalists into a craze (as is evident even here), so now they can report on how much China hates the US or some such nonsense.

The malicious comments on the leading country in this games reminds me of a school bully losing a race to the class model student and calling him a cheat. Wait....isn't this what is happening in the world economy and geopolitics as well? Ah the vestiges of a crumbling empire.